Ever since the dawn of the space age, people have imagined what could be achieved as the boundaries of engineering,technology and human endeavor have been pushed further and further. They had dreams of gigantic launch systems, nuclear-propelled interplanetary spacecraft, and the ultimate – space colonized byhumans. Why did they not (yet) succeed in bringing their projects to reality?

Dream Missions takes the reader on a journey through the history of extremely large, ambitious, and complex space missionsthat never came to fruition. Each project described in this book says something about the visions and expectations of their time, and how their demise was often linked to important changes in the cultural, political and social state of the world.

Various ambitious mission and spacecraft concepts arepresented, for each covering:

Overview of its history and design;

The philosophybehind the concept;

Why it was never developed andflown; and, intriguingly

Is there still a chance the mission will actually be carried out, with technology progressing, requirements and constraints changing, and alternative sources of funding becoming available?